Wed 2.0: Where am I & where am I going?

Every august, at the beginning of the school year, I go back to my French curriculum folders to start planning for units. I use those folders to keep copies of my classes' activities, ideas, and samples of work. They are meant to guide my planning and teaching along the year. Unfortunately, every year, I have to start new folders because I can never redo "exactly" what I did the year before. Students never move at the same pace, the lessons gear us in different directions, and, there are usually always new ideas for how to improve the units. Basically, my folders have been multiplying on the shelves over the past 4 years.

Things I have been working on in the past few (4) years:
1) Getting away from poster presentations
2) Finding creative ways for students to use the French they have learned

Tools I have been dabbling with in my classes:
-Panthernet: I am in the process of uploading the files from my curr. Folders onto panthernet online.
-Blogging: monjournalenfrancais.
-voicethread: see final project blog entry on Language Exchange
-Windows moviemaker: It's been a great tool for oral presentations but allow minimal spontaneous oral communication
-Audacity: I have created many (podcast) recordings in order to improve listening skills. (i.e. the vocabulary for INTRO is recorded and posted on Panthernet where students can go listen and practice)
-Photostory 3 for Windows: easier to use than movie maker, but less flexibility
-Myisb (our school's social network): I am trying it out as a potential portfolio for my students.
-podcast: a great way to find authentic material
-Youtube: another great source for authentic material (movie, music…)
-msn messenger & facebook: Spontaneous chatting with students in the target language

Tools I will be trying to use in the near future
-Skype: I am hoping to use it soon to connect with other French classes around the world
-Wiki: in the next few weeks, I am going to venture in the world of WIKI with my French B class. I will let you know soon about this project. I know I will be seeking the help of Kim, Jeff and anyone who has used a wiki before.

At the end of this class, I am still looking for a few ideas/suggestions:
-From 6th to 8th grade, my French students create a variety of "projects" that contribute to their portfolio. It can be anything from a journal entry, a poster, a power point presentation, a photostory or movie making video presentation. I am still searching for a tool that would allow my students to post their work in one location.
Ideally:
-Students would be able to use the portfolio to post and back up their work in French class.
-Students (parents & teacher) would be able to see for themselves how much progress they have made in French over 3 years.
-Students would be able to take their portfolio with them if/when they leave ISB.
-The portfolio would be aesthetically pleasing.

If anyone out there has any suggestion for what tool could work best for me, send me your suggestions.

Did I leave the Coetail class overwhelmed? Yes, but with tons of ideas.

Old things in New Ways!

In his article "Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom", Prensky writes that "the only way to move forward effectively is to combine what they (the students) know about technology with what we (the teachers) know and require about education."
Here is a sample of a project my French B students did last year presenting their daily routine. They combined their passion for music, applied what they had learned in French class, and created this awesome music video clip using microsoft movie maker.

Moving forward...

Reflection on Final Project : Collaboration-Connection-Commitment

3 language teachers (Spanish-French, Elementary-Middle school) from our school connected today to share ideas and collaborate on a common project. Our students will use the target language to actively communicate with other students around the world using voicethread. We will challenge students to "virtually" step outside of the classroom and apply what they know to connect with another person.

I valued our work together: we shared our previous experiences, brainstormed for ideas, and ultimately learned from each other. I would like to spend more time in conversation and follow up on the progress of our students. It will be interesting to go through the experience together and reflect on our failures and successes.

Project Sketch: Penpal or Digipal?

Last semester, French INTRO students learned how to describe the physical and personality traits of people (themselves and later others). In class, students created posters (cover for their journal) using basic information about themselves. As they are starting to speak French, I wanted them to have a chance to record their voice and listen to themselves. Wanting to make it more relevant for the students, I created a classroom account on voicethread.com where I posted a picture of each of my students. Students presented themselves in French, recording their voice comment on their picture. Later in the semester, as they learned how to describe others, we went back to the pictures on voicethread. This time, instead of describing themselves, students picked a classmate's picture and recorded a voice comment about them.

Ideally, I had hoped to connect my class digitally with another French class, using their journals and this project. However, I did not make any successful contact with any other school, so the project remained pending. Talking to Gaby about her idea for this course, she inspired me to revisit the voicethread project with my French intro students.
During an IB conference in Paris, I had a chance to make contact with several French teachers around the world. I tried to actively establish a line of contact with those schools, hoping that one of them would be interested in starting an exchange with our middle school French classes. It's a work in process, but I am hopeful that my 6th graders will connect with French students in Europe, Middle East or China before the end of this school year.

NET Standards:
1. Creativity and Innovation
2. Communication and Collaborate
3. Digital Citizen ship
4. Technology Operations and Concepts

Some ideas:
-Apart from describing themselves and others, students will be able exchange and present their daily routine as middle school students, their school, their culture, their world.
Some questions:
-One question I will need to address quickly will be regarding the safety of using digital tools like voicethread. Will I be able to continue to use the students' pictures on a private voicethread account or should I consider using other images?

Direct Classroom Application: Field trip to Paris

As a transition between 2 units (weather – café) in French A, we listened and sang the song "Aux Champs Élysées" (Joe Dassin) in class. The song led us to a visit in the streets of Paris and with the use of youtube , I was able to show a video clip with some images of les Champs Élysées.

However, trying to give a perspective to students who have never been to France what the streets of Paris look like and where they lead you was no easy task. I used the board to draw a mediocre map explaining how you can go from l'Arc de Triomphe to la place de la concorde, to le musée du Louvre, etc.

On Wednesday, during our F2F meeting, we learned about the 2009 Horizon Report and Geo-Everything: "Many free or very low-cost tools to capture and display geolocative data are available online and they continue to improve in usability and flexibility".

The next day, my students were taking a walk down the Champs Élysées, thanks to google maps .

ET VOILA!

Thoughts changing? Leading the way...

My brother is 14. He goes to a public high school near Paris, France. He does not play any sports and has some trouble socializing with his classmates. Most of his free time is spent playing (online) video games and chatting (with friends? With people he plays games with? With strangers?). During my visit in France, I noticed that he had a blog. I am not sure how he uses his blog, but out of curiosity, I tried (teenager) to have a conversation with him about his use of technology. He reported that, were he given a choice, he would like to use technology all the time. However, when I asked him about the use of technology in the context of his school, his response was firm: Never!
Does that mean he is enraged? Is the French school system failing him? Will he not be able to catch up? I am very curious to watch, observe and compare his education with some of the students in our international school setting.

I would like to take things with a grain of salt. Some of the articles we have been reading are trying to convince educators to step away from their traditional teaching and use new tools. I feel the teachers in our coetail class have already taken that step. Our international school is well "en route". I am (al)ready to use technology. I am convinced that it is important to step on the same level of the students. What I need now are concrete ideas & examples of applications in my language classroom.
I struggle with finding a balance between good ole classroom teaching and technology. Should I not hang on to it so much? I am not ready to tell my students that using online translator to write their French project is OK. I still want them to think rather than let the machine do it for them.

Bonjour-Niao

January 9-15th, 2009 I was absent from school.

I went to France for an IB Conference in Paris, France. I thought I would have to miss the Wednesday scheduled f2f meeting, but instead was able to watch it directly from my mother's computer.

Thanks to some neat technology, the class was videotaped and broadcasted live on our coetail wiki. Although the connection was not always the best, I was able to meet some of our overseas' colleagues and classmates.

David Young, currently teaches in ISBeijing but will be joining ISBangkok next fall. 2 reasons why I think our connection was neat:
1- One of our assignment was to read different blogs from our RSS feed. I went searching for David's. I have been reading his blogs. If you haven't done so yet, go check him out. Neat ideas and good questions raised!
2- In the midst of our conversation, I asked David if ISBeijing teaches French. In my search for connecting my middle school French students with other French students, I asked David if he could put me in contact with the French teachers at his school so we could (maybe*) create an exchange between our students. David and I exchanged e-mail. He has since e-mailed me, putting me in touch with one of the French teacher at ISBeijing. I hope to be able to establish contact between our two French programs, so that our students can write/read/listen & speak to each other. Exciting!

To be continued…